Gabriel Knight III: PREVIEW
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Published By: Sierra

Previewed by Circe
9/14/99

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First Impressions:

A new adventure game with a cool story written by the renowned female lead designer and author, Jane Jensen! Which WomanGamer could resist? Secret Vampire sects, french cuisine, cute male polygons, spooky cathedrals abounding with secrets... who could ask for more?

The Story :

Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned is set in Rennes-le-Chateau, a real true-to-life village in southern France. Apparently, this village also has a true-to-life mystery that the author, Jane Jensen, harnessed in this new adventure game. Gabriel, the New Orleaner hero, is invited to France by a local Prince who believes his son is endangered by a secretive sect of vampires. The son is in fact kidnapped and Gabriel follows them and loses them in the village Rennes-le-Chateau. Gabriel finds that the mystery that surrounds the village and the Prince's family are both interconnected. Grace Nakimura, his companion, soon shows up on the scene to aid Gabriel in his quest for the truth.

Jane Jensen's stories are as infectuous as typhoid fever. All you want to do as a player is get that next little morsel of information so that you can piece together the puzzle of the remarkable tale. One of the things I especially like is the building up of anticipation by the ever captivating storyline. you are always left wondering, whom will I encounter next?

Characters:

Gabriel Knight is a well drawn group of polygons to say the least. Through art and sound, Sierra managed to expertly portray the personality of a rakish, inquisitive, and charming man from New Orleans. Where did they *find* that voice?! For those of you who have not guessed, it is Tim Curry.

Guest reviewer Annette Bechamp has spoken about Grace in some detail in the Digital Women section. To quote from Annette's review, "What Grace lacks in beauty, she makes up for in brains. Grace can smell mystery and will track down and decipher the clues until she gets to the bottom of it, no matter what the consequences." Sounds like a real heroine of the 90's.

The emotions on the faces themselves were impossible for me to gauge mainly because the characters themselves continued to flicker in and out of view. I believe that this will most certainly be fixed in the "real release" of the game.

Gameplay:

Adventure in 3D. Jane Jensen discussed her decision to move to the new 3D graphics engine during her interview with Doctor K. She said, "Well, first off, a year after GK2 shipped, when I was discussing GK3 with Sierra, it was pretty clear that nothing would get approved unless it was 3D. Ken Williams, still around at that time, and the other execs were pretty convinced that FMV(full motion video) was dead and 3D was the future. And, having seen in early prototypes, I thought they were right. It's a matter of what's "hot" in gaming technology. That may sound mercenary to the gamers out there, but it makes a lot of sense.Why put development money into something that's "not cool" and won't sell because of it? From my end, I had to be convinced that I could do a solid GK in 3D and I was. As for the motivation behind the move to 3D industry-wide -- I think it's a real playability issue. 3D has a lot more freedom of play than 2D. It truly is as radical as the difference between being stuck in a two-dimensional world ala "Flatland" and being in a three-dimensional space like our own. "

As far as puzzles go, GK3 has returned to an emphasis on logic puzzles that the first GK had. Also the gameplay is less linear and it has many more "optional" puzzles and scenes which the player may or may not see.

The camera movements themselves gave me a much bigger sense of freedom within the canvas of the game. The movements of the characters themselves were fluid and believable.

Overall Impression:

This is going to be a fun game, and I for one, cannot wait until it comes out.